Hipsters are not to blame for Hackney's woes, says mayor

The Mayor of Hackney has hit back at claims by Pauline Pearce that the borough
is being spoilt by an influx of hipsters who are driving up prices and
alienating locals

Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney

By Jules Pipe, Mayor of Hackney

4:01PM BST 08 Aug 2014

Three years ago, the streets of Hackney were affected, like so many other parts of London and the UK, by an outbreak of rioting that lasted only a few hours but had a lasting impact on the communities that live here.

There have been many attempts since to theorise about the underlying causes and what needed to be done, some more credible than others. There has been much work between the local communities and the police to rebuild trust, and to address concerns around stop and search.

Today, however, the future success of the borough is reliant on our being a creative and dynamic place that has something to offer London and beyond – demonising visitors to the area who are spending their money in local businesses is profoundly unhelpful and divisive.

It’s true that Hackney is changing fast, and that the pace of change is unsettling for many people who live here. Highest on the list of residents’ concerns is the affordability of housing with prices driven even higher than the London boom by the borough’s increasing attractiveness.

There is a deepening housing crisis across London and although Hackney has seen some of the highest new affordable home completions in the country, and itself built more new council homes than anywhere else in the UK, it is a drop in the ocean of what’s needed.

New businesses are opening on every street corner. And yes, some of them are selling some pretty expensive coffee. But with change comes opportunity. As Mayor of Hackney, it is my first priority to ensure that the growing prosperity of this borough creates life-changing opportunities for the people who live here – not least for the young people growing up here, many of whose parents were let down badly by failures in education and lack of opportunity in past decades.

The life chances of young people in inner city boroughs like ours are not transformed by taking an insular, parochial approach that fears newcomers. They are transformed by education, raising aspirations and creating opportunities.

In Hackney, where once there were desperately failing schools, we now have one of the best education offers in the capital, with schools like Mossbourne and City Academy heading for 90% of pupils getting five or more good GSCEs.

Those schools are inevitably attracting new people into the borough, but they are also directly benefiting the thousands of families from all backgrounds already living here. Hackney Council is working directly with new employers to get local people into jobs. The new Fashion Hub on Morning Lane is creating hundreds of new jobs for residents and will bring 3 million visitors a year into the area who will spend money here.

We have just launched a new work experience scheme for more than one hundred 16 and 17 year olds, which will place them in a wide range of exciting businesses, including digital, creative and media, and pay them the London Living wage. The borough is clean, it is safe, it has great public facilities, and now it offers chances to those who live here.

What’s happening in Hackney is reflected, to different degrees, across the rest of the capital. London Councils estimates 809,000 additional homes will be needed across London by 2021. Hipsters might be able to spare the change for a flat white, but when the average deposit for a London home is £64,000, London is becoming unaffordable to all but the highest earners. To make the capital’ s housing work for all its residents and build enough truly affordable homes, London needs to be given the resources and powers from government to do deliver greater numbers.

And if anyone is still determined to identify a villain of the gentrification story, I’d put those in the dock who are pushing housing associations to charge 80% of market rents, along with developers who sidestep affordable housing obligations, long before I’d be pursuing the hapless Hackney hipster.